MARCH 10 to APRIL 5

By Rick Cleveland Directed by Mark Clements Executive Producers Carol & Rob Manegold www.MilwaukeeRep.com | 414-224-9490 MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER The Quadracci Powerhouse Season is Sponsored by H. Richard Quadracci Ewens & Emilio Cabrera MARK CLEMENTS CHAD BAUMAN In Memory Of Harry And Betty Quadracci Artistic Director Managing Director • Presents... PLAY GUIDE WRITTEN BY Lindsey Hoel-Neds Education Associate MARCH 10 – APRIL 5, 2015 Deanie Vallone QUADRACCI POWERHOUSE Education Intern With additional content from Arizona Theatre Company • PLAY GUIDE EDITED BY Jenny Toutant Education Director Leda Hoffmann Literary Coordinator Lisa Fulton Director of Marketing and Communications • By Rick Cleveland GRAPHIC DESIGN BY Eric Reda Directed by Mark Clements Executive Producers Carol & Rob Manegold A Co-Production With Arizona Theatre Company

About the Play...... 3 Cast and Creative Team...... 3 Profiles of the Presidents...... 4 Presidential Codenames...... 5 People Referenced in the Play...... 6 Historical Events Map...... 8 Other Terms and Allusions in the Play...... 10

Patty & Jay Baker Theater Complex An Interview with Playwright Rick Cleveland...... 12 108 E Wells Street, Milwaukee WI 53202 Featured Artists: Josiah Laubenstein, www.MilwaukeeRep.com Administration: 414-224-1761 Nick Narcisi, and Chris O’Reilly, Artistic Interns Ticket Office: 414-224-9490 and Five Presidents Understudies ...... 13 2 About the Play

Five Presidents brings us to the Executive Board Room at the Nixon Library on April 27, 1994. It is the day of ’s funeral: a historic occasion at which the five living U.S. Presidents—four exes and one current—gather together to mourn, honor, and criticize It’s impossible to be in this one of our history’s most controversial political figures. As each of job without feeling a special the five presidents arrives, he shares insights into being a member bond with the people who of “the most exclusive club in the world.” Some are old friends, have gone before. others are new acquaintances, and all are still stinging from pasts as -President Bill Clinton, political adversaries. As they bring up old grievances and political Speech announcing the death differences, they test their tenuous relationships. The presidents not of Richard Nixon, 1994 only banter with and challenge each other, but they also question Nixon’s legacy as the afternoon unfurls. As good-natured ribbing leads to rising tension, the presidents struggle with the legacy they all share, and the choices they have made. Cast and Creative Team

Mark Jacoby Martin L’Herault Reese Madigan Steve Sheridan George H.W. Bush Special Agent Michael Kirby

Jeff Steitzer Brit Whittle Rick Cleveland Mark Clements Gerald R. Ford Bill Clinton Playwright Director

Todd Edward Ivins Mary Folino Jesse Klug Scenic Designer Costume Designer Lighting Designer Brian Jerome Peterson Lauren Wilde Jill Walmsley Zager Sound Designer Makeup Designer Dialect Coach Brent Hazelton Hannah Greene Richelle Harrington Calin Production Dramaturg Assistant Director Stage Manager Rebecca Lindsey Kimberly Carolus Assistant Stage Manager Stage Management Apprentice 3 PROFILES OF THE PRESIDENTS

Number 37 Number 38 RICHARD NIXON (1969-1974) (1974-1977) Political Party: Republican Political Party: Republican With a degree in law, Nixon started his political career as a After Nixon’s Vice President, , resigned during the start of the Congressional representative, then won a seat in the Senate before becoming president’s second term, Ford took over as Nixon’s VP. With Nixon’s Vice President to Eisenhower. Though he lost a very close election in the 1960 resignation, he became president under the Twenty-fifth Amendment. On presidential run to John F. Kennedy, he secured his own presidency in 1968. top of dealing with the repercussions of Nixon’s scandal and resignation, While in office he pursued revenue sharing, the end of the draft, anticrime Ford found himself faced with problems of inflation, energy shortages, and laws, and a broader environmental program. His global accomplishments a suffering economy. He started his term by pardoning Nixon, an act that included creating a treaty with the U.S.S.R. to limit strategic nuclear weapons raised much controversy. A major concern during his presidency was and establishing a relationship with China. The Watergate Scandal stimulating the economy while still managing inflation issues. Maintaining dominated the start of his second term in 1972, and eventually led to his Nixon’s international policies, Ford dealt with the aftermath of the collapse resignation in 1974. of Cambodia and South Vietnam, and expanded aid to Israel and Egypt in an attempt to promote peace between the countries.

Number 40 Number 41 RONALD REAGAN GEORGE H. W. BUSH (1981-1989) (1989-1993) Political Party: Republican Political Party: Republican Reagan started his career as a Hollywood actor, appearing in 53 films over the Before becoming president, Bush held a number of high-ranking positions, course of two decades. As president of the Screen Actors Guild he got including Congressional Representative, UN Ambassador, Chairman of the involved in the debate over Communism in the film industry, his views Republican National Committee, and Director of the CIA. He served two becoming more conservative. He served as before terms as VP to Reagan before becoming president in 1989. Immediately running for president in 1980. After a failed assassination attempt on him Bush faced the end of the and Communism, the fall of the Berlin within his first few months in office, his approval ratings soared. His Wall, the breakdown of the Soviet Union, and the resignation of reformist immediate focus was on increasing employment, curbing inflation, and President Mikhail Gorbachev with whom Bush and prior presidents had cutting taxes. In 1986 Reagan and Congress worked together to simplify the worked. Other international issues included sending American troops into tax system that exempted millions of low income households from income Panama to overthrow the regime of Governor Manuel Noriega, and taxes. He worked with the Soviet Union on arms reductions, declared war reversing Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait during Desert Storm. against international terrorism, gave support to anti-terrorist insurgencies, and maintained a free flow of oil during the Iran-Iraq war by ordering Naval escorts in the Persian Gulf.

FOR FULL VERSIONS OF THE PRESIDENTS’ BIOGRAPHIES, VISIT: www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents 4 PRESIDENTIAL CODENAMES Every President and Vice President of the , as well as presidential candidates, some high level staff, and presidential family members, get a Secret Service codename. Often, the president is presented with a list of options or a letter the codename must start with. Number 39 After the name is chosen, all members of the president’s JAMES CARTER family will receive or choose codenames beginning with (1977-1981) the same letter. Political Party: Democrat See below for codenames of the six presidents in Starting his career as the Governor of Georgia, Carter eventually won a tough the play and their First Ladies: presidential campaign against Ford in 1977. During his presidency eight million new jobs for American citizens were created, he expanded the national park Richard Nixon: Searchlight system, and promoted civil service reform. He also created the Department of Pat Nixon: Starlight Education, and appointed a record number of members of unrepresented citizen groups to government jobs. Internationally, he established an agreement Gerald Ford: Pass Key between Israel and Egypt through the Camp David Accords in 1978. The Iran : Pinafore Hostage Crisis overshadowed the last fourteen months of his administration and he lost his second campaign for the Presidency. Jimmy Carter: Deacon Rosalyn Carter: Dancer

Ronald Reagan: Rawhide : Rainbow

George H.W. Bush: Timberwolf Number 42 Barbara Bush: Tranquility WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1993-2001) Bill Clinton: Eagle Political Party: Democrat Hillary Clinton: Evergreen Clinton gained his passion for politics after meeting JFK as a delegate to Boys Nation while in high school. In 1976 he was elected Arkansas Attorney General Interesting codename fact: Maureen Reagan shares a and won the governorship in 1978. After losing a bid for a second term, he codename with current presidential daughter Sasha Obama, regained the office four years later and he held that post until 1992 when he was Rosebud, while her sister Doria’s codename, Radiant, is very elected president. In 1998, he became the second president to be impeached for close to Malia Obama’s codename, Radiance. lying under oath about personal indiscretions with a White House intern. He was tried in the Senate and found not guilty of the charges against him. Though infamous for this event, Clinton’s two terms in office marked the country’s lowest unemployment rate in modern times, the lowest inflation rate in 30 years, and a drop in crime rates across many cities. Internationally, he aided Bosnia during the Yugoslav Wars, became a global proponent for an expanded NATO, and pursued a worldwide campaign against drug trafficking.

Always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. Those who hate you don’t win. Unless you hate them. And then, you destroy yourself. -Richard Nixon, Farewell speech to White House staff, August 9, 1974 5 PEOPLE REFERENCED IN THE PLAY

Alexander Haig: four-star general who served as White House Chief of Staff under President Nixon and served as Secretary of State during the Reagan administration. Donald Rumsfeld: served as White House Chief of Ann Richards: Democratic governor of Staff under President Ford and later served as Secretary of Texas from 1990 to 1994 who broke down Defense for President Ford and barriers for women and minorities, and made President George W. Bush. major reforms to social institutions in the state. Defeated in the Texas gubernatorial race by George W. Bush in 1994.

Bob Dole: Republican U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1969 to 1996 who ran for president in the 1996 election. : served as a White House Chief of Staff under President Ford, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby: prominent Secretary of Defense under American entertainers and actors who starred George H.W. Bush, and as Vice together in a series of “Road to...” films. President under George W. Bush. G. Gordon Liddy: organizer of the Watergate burglaries and chief member of the White House Plumbers, a special investigation H. Ross Perot, Sr: unit during the Nixon administration, who was American businessman who ran convicted and served more time in federal for president as an independent prisons than any of the other Watergate in 1992 and 1996, earning a small conspirators. portion of the popular vote during each election. Photo credit: Allan Warren Gennifer Flowers: model and former actress whose accusations of an affair with Bill Clinton scandalized and almost ended his first presidential campaign.

Hosni Mubarek: president of Egypt Henry Kissinger: from 1981 to 2011 who rose to power after noted author, scholar, and diplomat the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. who served as Secretary of State Resigned in 2011 after protests against his under Presidents Nixon and Ford. government and its policies. Photo credit: Thomas J. O’Halloran

6 Hubert Humphrey: Democratic Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson from 1964 to 1968 who was narrowly defeated in the 1968 presidential election by Richard Nixon. Spiro Agnew: served as Vice President under Hunter S. Thompson: controversial Richard Nixon, but was forced to American journalist whose new style and resign after pleading no contest to a charge of income tax evasion. unabashed opinions led to the coining of the term “gonzo journalism”; highly critical of not only politics, but American life. Boutros Boutros-Ghali: Irving “Swifty” Lazar: well-known Egyptian diplomat who was the agent who served Hollywood and the first African and Arab to hold the literary world for almost fifty years. position of UN Secretary General. Served from 1992-1996. Photo credit: Wikipedia Red Skelton: performer, host, and NBC star for many years, who later acted in over 30 films.

Reverend Billy Graham: well-known American evangelist who served as a Wolf Blitzer: journalist who is best known for his spiritual advisor to several presidents, work covering American politics including Richard Nixon. and international events; he has reported and hosted programs for Smothers Brothers: Tom and Dick CNN since 1990. Smothers hosted a TV show called the Photo credit: Larry Busacca, zimbio.com Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour that was politically left-leaning, and was eventually censored and cancelled due to its controversial content.

Yitzhak Rabin: Israeli Prime Minister Anwar el-Sadat: who strove for peace with Palestine, Egyptian president from 1970 to serving from 1992 to 1995. 1981 who fought for peace with Assassinated in 1995. Israel and received the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize as a result. Assassinated by extremists in 1981. Photo credit: Wikipedia

7 HISTORICAL EVENTS MAP

FORT CHAFFEE, ARKANSAS , NEW YORK Nearly 125,000 Cubans fleeing Castro’s On February 26, 1993, terrorist Ramzi Yousef Communist rule boarded boats at the port and six others set off a bomb in the parking of Mariel and departed for America in garage beneath the World Trade Center. Six 1980. Jimmy Carter welcomed the people died and more than a thousand were refugees with open arms. Fort Chaffee, AK injured. The attack was part of a larger plot to became a temporary center to house and bomb a number of New York landmarks, process the refugees. including the FBI headquarters, but FBI agents were able to capture the terrorists before they fulfilled their plans.

GRENADA In mid-October 1983, a Communist military rule was established on the island after the murder of the Grenadian Prime Minister. With the threat of weapons being imported from Cuba and the security of 800 American medical students on WACO, TEXAS the island both as contributing factors, Reagan In 1993, a 51-day standoff occurred here sent troops to subdue the air and ground forces. between the Branch Davidian Christian sect and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms when the ATF agents came to investigate allegations of weapons hoarding. More than 80 Davidians died, as well as four ATF agents. IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR Reagan agreed to sell weapons to Iran in return for the safe release of American hostages being held by Iranian terrorists in Lebanon, violating both an embargo and Reagan’s own campaign against negotiating with terrorists. However, not PANAMA all of the money ended up in the government’s Drug trafficker and military dictator, coffers. Soon it was found out that a large General Manuel Noriega had rule over portion of the money made from the illegal sale Panama in 1989. He declared war against funded the Contra, a rebel group working to the United States and led brutal attacks displace the Communist Sandinista government against Americans in Panama. Bush sent in Nicaragua. The monetary diversion directly troops into the country to protect the opposed the Boland Amendments which American citizens, the Panamanian restricted American support of the Contra rebels. democracy, and the Panama Canal Treaty.

8 BOSNIA Called the deadliest European conflict since WWII, the Yugoslav Wars RUSSIA (1991-2001) were a series of civil wars between the varied ethnicities in Nixon visited Russia in 1994, causing an uproar when he met the former Yugoslavia. In Bosnia, the Serbian minority led a campaign of with the former Vice President, Alexander V. Rutskoi, who had ethnic cleansing and war crimes against the primarily Muslim Bosnians. recently tried to lead an insurrection against President Boris Carter went as an envoy to Bosnia, without the overt support of Clinton’s Yeltsin, a man with whom Nixon had previously been on good administration. Many UN officials, including UN Secretary General terms. Yeltsin, in turn, cancelled his own meeting to see Boutros-Ghali, worried that having another envoy in the mix would Nixon. Nixon went on to speak at the Russian Parliament only complicate and delay negotiation processes. about the economic and strategic futures of both countries.

BEIRUT, LEBANON In 1983, two attacks against Americans in Lebanon occurred. The first was theUS Embassy Bombing in Beirut where 63 people were killed, including a number of CIA employees. The second was the Marine Barracks Bombing in the Beirut International Airport where 241 American Marines were killed.

VIETNAM The (1959-1975) LIBYA erupted between the nationalistic In April 1986, Reagan IRAN forces whose goal it was to unify authorized an air strike In 1979, a group of Iranian students Vietnam under communist rule, and against five Libyan military stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and the United States (with the aid of South targets and “terrorism took 52 people hostage. Carter’s Vietnam) who tried to stop the spread centers” in retaliation for attempt to retake the compound and of communism. Believing a victory to the Libyan support of rescue the hostages—Operation Eagle be impossible, many Americans terrorism against American Claw—failed. The Iran Hostage opposed the war. troops and citizens. Crisis played a significant role in Carter’s 1981 presidential defeat to Reagan. The hostages were released hours after Reagan’s inaugural speech. GULF OF TONKIN SOMALIA During the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in From the mid-1970s, Somalia faced 1964, the North Vietnamese fired rebellion, civil war, drought, and directly at US ships on international escalating rates of starvation. In the waters. Following this, the Gulf of early 1990s, over 50,000 people PERSIAN GULF The Gulf War started in 1990 when Tonkin Resolution was established by died in the civil wars and 300,000 President Lyndon Johnson, died of starvation. During Bush’s Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein declared a holy war against, invaded, and allowing him to send the first US administration, UN peacekeepers ground troops to Vietnam. were sent into Somalia to provide occupied Kuwait under the false humanitarian relief, but the premise that it was siphoning oil from continued violence against both Iraq. Operation Desert Storm, a natives and American soldiers massive US-led air offensive, led to a proved to be too much. When he cease-fire a few months later in which took over the presidency in 1993, Iraq recognized Kuwait’s sovereignty. Clinton gave the order for all American soldiers to withdraw by March 1994.

9 OTHER TERMS AND ALLUSIONS IN THE PLAY

Carter and Desert Storm: During the first Gulf War, Carter expressed his opposition to military action vocally and vehemently. He went so far as to send letters to heads of state and members of United Nations Security Council urging them to revoke their support for Bush’s military intervention and eventual war. Logan Act: a law that makes it illegal for an unauthorized American citizen to have private correspondence with a foreign government in order to negotiate or intend to influence them in opposition to American policies or actions. Energy Crisis: In 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in what later became known as the Yom Kippur War. As the war continued, and the Betty Ford Centers: not-for-profit alcohol treatment centers and Soviet Union supplied arms to the anti-Israel coalition, the United States drug rehabilitation clinics. First Lady Betty Ford co-founded the first began to resupply Israel’s arsenal. In response, OAPEC (Organization of center in California in 1982 after completing her own treatment for Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) reduced petroleum production and chemical dependency. Ford specifically wanted a center that placed an embargo on oil exports to the U.S. Even after the embargo was addressed the needs of women, and now Betty Ford Treatment lifted in 1974, oil prices remained high, supply was lower, and the effects Centers specialize in programming for the entire family unit affected of the crisis lingered throughout the 1970s, leading to the establishment of the Department of Energy in 1977. by addiction. Photo credit: AP Carter and the rabid bunny: In 1979, President Carter was fishing in Georgia when a rabbit swam close to his boat; Carter used his paddle to splash water on the rabbit so it would change course. The innocuous incident exploded in the news and was heralded as the president’s encounter with a “killer bunny.” Air traffic controllers strike:In August of 1981, members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization began a labor strike. President Reagan threatened to fire almost 13,000 of the striking members if they did not return to the job. The strike ended due to Reagan’s actions. National Healthcare Initiative: In 1993, the Clinton administration proposed sweeping healthcare reform, spearheaded by a task force led by Watergate: On June 17, 1972, five men broke into the Democratic First Lady Hillary Clinton. The proposal included many provisions that are National Committee headquarters at the Watergate building. After a similar to the current Affordable Care Act, but the measure was defeated in call from a security guard, they were arrested in possession of a large Congress in 1994. sum of cash and surveillance and recording equipment. Congress Whitewater: Bill and Hillary Clinton made investments into a failed convened a special committee to investigate a possible connection savings and loan company during the 1970s and 1980s, allegedly profiting between the burglary and the Nixon White House. After sixteen illegally from the investments. During Clinton’s presidency, Congress months of investigations, the committee found a direct link convened hearings and a special investigation into the allegations, but no between President Nixon and covering up the White House’s formal charges were ever filed against the Clintons. Fifteen other people connection to the plot. This led to the House Judiciary Committee were convicted of crimes related to the controversy. drawing up articles of impeachment, but before the impeachment proceedings could occur, President Nixon resigned. Photo credit: AP “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”: In 1993, Congress passed a policy allowing homosexual members of the military to serve as long as they did not reveal their sexuality, and officers were not allowed to ask about it. This policy was a compromise when Congress threatened to override Clinton’s attempt to lift the ban on homosexuals in the military. 10 Assassination attempts: President Ford: President Ford was the victim of two separate assassination attempts in less than one month in 1975. First, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, shot at the president from less than an arm’s length away, but her gun did not fire and no one was injured. A mere two weeks later, a radicalized former FBI informant and accountant, Sarah Jane Moore, attempted to kill Ford, but a bystander, Oliver Sipple, stopped her. President Reagan: In March of 1981, a mere two months into his presidency, President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. outside a Washington, D.C. hotel. Reagan was shot in the chest, only a few inches from his heart, but made a full recovery. His press secretary, James Brady, was critically injured in the shooting, as well as two members of Reagan’s protective detail. President Bush: During a visit to Kuwait in 1993, the former president narrowly avoided a car bomb plot to assassinate him in response to the Gulf War. Intelligence indicated that the plan was Secret Service Agents put handcuffs on Lynette Fromme orchestrated by the Iraqi Intelligence Service; President Clinton ordered a missile attack on the after she pulled a gun on President Ford organization in retaliation later that year. Photo credit: AP

Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In: Laugh In was a popular sketch comedy show that ran from 1968 to 1973. The show coined many catchphrases, but when Richard Nixon appeared on a 1968 episode and uttered the show’s signature phrase, “Sock it to me,” history was made. Some still attribute the rise in his approval ratings to his appearance on the program.

Saturday Night Live: Over its forty-year history, Saturday Night Live has lampooned many American political figures, presidents not excluded. InFive Presidents, Presidents Ford and Clinton refer specifically to their portrayals on the television program.

SAG-AFTRA: Two entertainment industry labor unions, the Screen Actors Guild and the Amer- President Clinton Jogs to McDonalds: Cast member ican Federation of Television and Radio Artists, merged together in 2012. Ronald Reagan Phil Hartman portrayed President Clinton in many SNL served for seven terms as president of SAG in the 1940s and 1950s. sketches, but the most famous is a sketch in which the Burdick vs. United States: In 1914, a grand jury convened to investigate whether a federal president pops into McDonald’s for a quick break employee was leaking information to the press. The reporter, George Burdick, involved in the amongst the people, and proceeds to eat a bite or two of case refused to testify. President Wilson pardoned the reporter, and the court decided that the most items on the menu. Photo credit: NBC acceptance of the pardon on the part of Burdick implied an “admission of guilt.”

Chevy Chase as President Ford: SNL cast member Chevy Chase portrayed President Ford as a bumbling, klutzy man in sketches that spanned several years. Nixon in China: 1987 opera created by composer John Adams, librettist Alice President Ford was good-humored about the ribbing, Goodman, and director Peter Sellars that depicts Nixon’s historic 1972 visit to the and even appeared on the show with a message directly People’s Republic of China. Photo credit: Jeff Busby from the Oval Office.Photo credit: NBC 11 AN INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT RICK CLEVELAND Playwright Rick Cleveland sat down with Arizona Theatre haven’t even started rehearsals yet. Company Literary Associate Katherine Monberg to answer some questions about the play and the Five Presidents journey from KM: The past few years seem to have inspired a script to stage. wave of interest in the political drama as a genre – Katherine Monberg: What sparked the idea to write I’m thinking of television’s The West Wing, House of a play about the meeting of the five living U.S. Cards, and Scandal, and recent stage plays like presidents at Richard Nixon’s funeral? Mario Correa’s Commander and, of course, Five Presidents. What about the genre do you think has Rick Cleveland: I first got this idea during the first suddenly captured the interest of American season of The West Wing. Someone showed me the audiences, and why now? iconic photo of those five presidents, four exes and one current, together at Nixon’s funeral, and it struck a RC: I think people have always been interested in chord. Because of Watergate, Nixon’s presidency politics. Look at Shakespeare’s plays: at least half of changed the office for everyone that came after. I them are political. These days, politics seem to be started wondering what these guys might have talked America’s bloodiest sport. A few years ago, I was about when they were together on that memorable working with Robert Redford on a script for the sequel day, behind closed doors. to The Candidate. And then Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination, and we stopped working on it. KM: The U.S. presidents are some of the most iconic That moment was exactly the wrong time to be figures in the collective American consciousness. working on a political satire. Now though, people are What are the challenges or opportunities that come feeling pretty cynical about politics again, and I think with writing about such well-known figures? that’s one of the reasons why House of Cards is such a RC: Oddly enough, Five Presidents is my fourth play hit. It’s the anti-West Wing. about presidents. When I was writing my first,My Buddy KM: Is there anything else about the play or the Bill, I realized that I needed to allow myself enough writing process you’d like to share with us? poetic license to be able to treat these real-life men as characters, while at the same time keeping the words I RC: I hope folks thoroughly enjoy the play. I hope they put in their mouths completely and utterly credible. feel like a fly on the wall while watching it. I hope they find it immensely entertaining, and entirely credible. As KM: One of the many brilliant facets of Five for the process of writing a play? It’s oh, so very lonely. Presidents is the subtlety that weaves decades of American political history into the immediate, Postscript / RC: In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. actually natural conversation of the men together in the appeared on Meet the Press and predicted that our room. How much research went into crafting the country would have an African American president in political side of their conversation? forty years. You can see the clip on YouTube. http://www.nbcnews.com/video/meet-the-press/25042123#25042123 RC: In short, a ton. I probably did as much research on these five presidents as I would have if I were writing a biography about them, I was especially keen on finding descriptions and quotes from private, off-the-cuff moments in their lives. KM: You have an impressive résumé as a screenwriter as well as a playwright – The West Wing, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, Nurse Jackie, and House of Cards. What is different about writing for the screen and writing for the stage? RC: Writing for a television series requires you to be fast. Especially if you’re writing a script for an episode while the show is in production. From a first draft to a finished episode might happen in three months or less. Writing a play is a luxury. I’ve written four or five drafts of Five Presidents over the course of two years, and we 12 Rick Cleveland FEATURED ARTISTS: JOSIAH LAUBENSTEIN, NICK NARCISI, AND CHRIS O’REILLY ACTING INTERNS AND FIVE PRESIDENTS UNDERSTUDIES

The old adage about performance says, “The show must they want to see the best you can offer right away.” go on.” But what happens if an actor in a show falls sick Narcisi adds, “The amount and scope of the work put on or has to go out of town? How does the show go on, here by the artists, it is amazing.” Working in a major then? Enter the understudy. Milwaukee Rep’s Artistic regional theater, alongside internationally respected Internship Program’s Acting Interns all understudy professionals, has been a priceless experience. “You principal roles for the Powerhouse and Stiemke shows. grow as an actor because you grow as a person,” says For Milwaukee Rep’s production of Five Presidents, O’Reilly. “Growing as a person always lends itself to Acting Interns Josiah Laubenstein, Nick Narcisi, and being a better artist.” Chris O’Reilly are understudying all six roles. Understudying characters that are based not just on real On any given day, they will attend the six to eight hour people, but on incredibly iconic public figures, has long principal rehearsal where they observe the actors proved challenging and exciting for the interns. All three they are understudying, paying close attention, says cite research as a large part of preparing for these roles. Laubenstein, “to how they navigate their lines and Using videos and radio recordings of Inauguration movement.” Then the interns go to a shorter speeches, addresses, and political understudy rehearsal. “Our job is to uphold the integrity debates, the interns have been able to learn a lot about of the character that has been created by the principal the presidents’ physicality, facial expressions, and speech actor,” says O’Reilly, “to create our own character while patterns. “We have only seen their public persona in still maintaining the semblance of the character that these videos,” says Laubenstein. “But even though the the principal created onstage.” The rehearsals are truly play does not take place in the public, there is a formality. preparing the understudies to go onstage at any It gets let down at certain times, but I think that persona moment’s notice. “Our main job is to fit seamlessly into is very present. When you are that persona so often, it is the show,” says Narcisi. Even if they do not step in for a hard to distinguish.” In the end, their goal is not to do principal actor, their hard work culminates in an impressions, but to capture the essence of the character. understudy performance held in one of The Rep’s “Playing real people,” O’Reilly says, “you just want to rehearsal halls. There they are able to perform for their humanize them.” stage managers, other interns, Artistic staff, and Rep So who are their favorite presidents? “I like Teddy staff members. This process, however, is not necessarily Roosevelt and his crazy work ethic,” says Laubenstein. “I the norm in theaters. “What we are allowed to do is rare,” respect that.” Narcisi agrees, but then has to change his says O’Reilly. “The fact that there are frequent mind. “I have to say because I am from understudy rehearsals is unique.” This on-the-job Illinois, and if I do not, I feel like I cannot live there anymore. training and the acting interns’ involvement in the His face is on our license plate.” O’Reilly takes a different rehearsal process is central to Milwaukee Rep’s route. “James K. Polk,” he says, “founder of Oregon. Internship Program. Portlandia would not exist without James K. Polk.” Milwaukee Rep’s Artistic Internship Program has gone a long way in preparing the acting interns for the challenges of this production. Most importantly, it establishes them as an important part of the production’s team. “They appreciate an understudy’s work,” says Narcisi. O’Reilly adds, “People treat you as a professional here.” The transition from amateur or collegiate work into professional work is one benefit of the program all three emphasized. Each is coming from a collegiate setting: Laubenstein is a Third Year Acting MFA Candidate at the University of South Carolina; Narcisi recently completed his BFA in Acting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign; and O’Reilly graduated with a BA in Writing Intensive English from Marquette University. “Negotiating the shift from education to professional, that has been my favorite O’Reilly, Narcisi, and Laubenstein strike their best presidential poses. part,” says Laubenstein. “The expectations are higher; 13 Visiting The Rep Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Patty and Jay Baker Theater Complex is located in the Milwaukee Center downtown at the corner of Wells and Water Streets. The building was formerly the home of the Electric Railway and Light Company.

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